West Virginia has some big shoes to fill at wide receiver.
Three of the top four options from a season ago are gone after Gary Jennings was drafted by Seattle, David Sills signed with Buffalo and Marcus Simms left the program for the supplemental draft. How much did the Mountaineers lose from the departures of those three players?
A total of 161 catches, 2,512 yards and 30 touchdowns meaning that a total of only 44 catches, 586 yards and 3 scores return from all of the wide receiver position last year.
Breaking that down even further, exactly half of those catches came from redshirt junior T.J. Simmons and all but 309 of the yards could be attributed to him. Of course Simmons returns and is going to be asked to do more than he did in his first year, something he is embracing.
During the spring Simmons lined up inside and outside in the West Virginia scheme and is going to be asked to be versatile this fall although the long term plan is to slide him inside once the other players around him develop. In the meantime, he has accepted his role as the leader.
“I just want to prove that I’m a top guy in the country. I’m a team guy and a good leader. We had two good receivers in the receiver room last year, two older guys, and now they’re gone people are going to look to me to see how I can lead this next receiver group to be great,” he said.
But Simmons can’t do it alone so that means that when West Virginia throws the football this season there are going to have to be some of those unknowns on the other end catching them.
But who will step up and do just that? Well that is somewhat of an open book at this stage of the process as the Mountaineers are working through the process heading into the fall.
The football program has brought in a pair of transfers one that will be immediately eligible in George Campbell, a former five-star from Florida State, and another in Temple transfer Sean Ryan who is currently seeking a waiver to see if he will be eligible this fall. Both of those players already have experience at the college level which could be a major addition to the outside if both are eligible.
Still over three years Campbell battled injuries to catch only 13 passes for 206 yards and in his one season at Temple Ryan was able to haul in 12 passes for 162 yards and a score.
Not eye popping numbers by any means but compared to the rest of the Mountaineers returning receiving corps outside of Simmons, only running back/wide receiver hybrid Tevin Bush had more catches with 13 last season than the dozen that Ryan was able to grab as a true freshman.
Bush would be the second leading returning wide receiver on the roster and he is back to help be utilized in various other roles along with the development of Isaiah Esdale, now a junior.
There are some exciting young options as well on the roster such as redshirt freshmen Sam James and Bryce Wheaton, both of which were able to get into games last year and keep their eligibility in-tact. James is more in the mold of a burner and field stretcher, while Wheaton uses his size to get the ball.
“I feel like we have a lot of good players that can be great,” he said. “…A lot of unknowns.”
Two other newcomers in the picture, but of the true freshman variety, are Ali Jennings on the outside and Winston Wright on the inside. Simmons, coincidentally is the big brother for Wright and he has seen a lot of impressive things from him such as his speed and how he is able to glide.
Given the surplus at running back and tight end, the Mountaineers also could help ease some of the concern at the position by mixing in the tight end position to create more three-wide receiver sets. That would cut down on the number of players needed to step up.
When expanding things out to those positions, Jovani Haskins (16 catches) and Kennedy McKoy (16) would be tied for the second most returning receptions on the team.
There are a lot of unknowns heading into the fall at wide receiver, but those questions will have to be answered soon as the season rapidly approaches. Can those good players be great?
That’s the biggest off-season question.
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